[tor-project] Tails report for July 2019

[sajolida]

Releases
========

* Tails 3.15 was released on July 9th (bugfix release).

  https://tails.boum.org/news/version_3.15/index.en.html

* Tails 3.16 is scheduled for September 3rd.


Documentation and website
=========================

- We updated most of our documentation to Tails based on Debian 10
  (Buster). (#16282)

- We simplified and updated our description of the system requirements.
  (#11663 and #16810).

- We fixed the display of the "Tor check" button on the homepage of *Tor
  Browser*. (#15312)

  This "Tor check" button is used by around 10% of users.

- We removed the "% translated" indication from our website because it
  was misleading. (#16867)

User experience
===============

- Odile Carabantes and Enso Studio created an animation on
  using the boot menu to start Tails:

  https://tails.boum.org/install/win/usb#animation

- We tested 2 alternatives to *Etcher* as it has some privacy issues
  (#16381):

  - Rawrite32 (#16553)
  - Win32 Disk Images (#14447)

- We proposed some small improvements to adjust *Tails Installer* to the
  fact that we are now distributing USB images:

  - Rename *Tails Installer* as *Tails Cloner* (#16907)
  - Use USB images instead of ISO images in *Tails Installer* (#16906)

- We proposed a design to [[use *Tails Installer* to backup the
  persistent volume:

  https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/backups/

Hot topics on our help desk
===========================

1. Many people are still having graphic card problems, specially
   "Error starting GDM with [AMD/ATI] Carrizo". (#16815)

2. We got a lot of support requests about **'Tails not being able to
   delete images'**. After a while we realised it was because of a
   confusing part of our documentation. We will try to fix that soon.
   (#16975)

1. Users keep trying to use Electrum even when, at the moment, it is not
   easy in Tails.

Infrastructure
==============

- We finished fixing the description of the mechanism for the
  revocation of the Tails signing key after an external review.
  (#15604)

  https://tails.boum.org/doc/about/openpgp_keys/signing_key_revocation/

- We discussed additions of new people to the Tails signing key
  revocation mechanism. (#16665)

- The new backups system for our entire infrastructure is live.
  (#15071)

- We upgraded our Puppet master (sic) to Debian 10 (Buster), which
  supports PuppetDB out of the box. This allowed us to drop a bunch of
  hackish workarounds and it was a great way to fast-track the
  onboarding of zen, our new sysadmin. (#16460)

- We made great progress on our web translation platform:

  https://translate.tails.boum.org/

  - We fixed a number of bugs identified since we submitted the platform
    to a production workload.
  - We modified in depth the permissions model to address issues
    identified by a security review.
  - We sent a public call for testing.
  - We kept working on documentation for translators.
  - We adjusted the resources allocated to the VM that runs this
    platform and deployed Apache `mod_security` to make it a bit less
    scary.

Funding
=======

- Our proposal to the Mozilla Open Source Support was accepted. It will
  fund our work to:

  - Improve Upgrades, late 2019 and early 2020 (#8415 and #15281)
  - Support Secure Boot, mid 2020 (#6560)
  - Migrate to GitLab, early 2020 (#15878)

Outreach
========

Past events
-----------

- A few Tails contributors attended DebConf19, the annual Debian
  Developers and Contributors Conference.

  intrigeri and nodens ran a skill-sharing session about AppArmor.

- Ulrike, anonym, and sajolida attended Tor Meeting in Stockholm,
  Sweden.

Upcoming events
---------------

- carlosm2 is organizing a testing of Tails 4.0~beta1 at the Rancho
  Electrónico en Ciudad de Mexico on Saturday August 17:

  https://twitter.com/dospesosinc/status/1160723565802602502

On-going discussions
====================

- We asked for comments on a proposal for a "People" page on our website
  that would be both trustworthy, human, and respect our pseudonyms:

  https://lists.autistici.org/message/20190720.142700.203814ca.en.html

- We asked for comments on the proposal to use *Tails Installer* to
  backup the persistent volume:

  http://lists.autistici.org/message/20190723.163900.7bfc4f4a.en.html

Translations
============

## All the website

  - de: 40% (2292) strings translated
  - es: 53% (3002) strings translated
  - fa: 32% (1803) strings translated
  - fr: 89% (5025) strings translated
  - it: 34% (1947) strings translated
  - pt: 26% (1465) strings translated

Total original words: 59619

## Core pages of the website

  - de: 69% (1216) strings translated
  - es: 83% (1453) strings translated
  - fa: 35% (624) strings translated
  - fr: 96% (1680) strings translated
  - it: 65% (1150) strings translated
  - pt: 47% (823) strings translated

Total original words: 16505

Metrics
=======

* Tails has been started more than 759 660 times this month. This
  makes 24 505 boots a day on average.

-- 
sajolida